New Delhi: An 85-year-old man, charge sheeted
by the CBI under the Official Secret Act over 30 years ago for
procuring a secret document about a government contract for
setting up an ammonia plant, has been let off by a Delhi court
with a fine of Rs 5,000 after he pleaded guilty to his act.
Jawand Singh Khurana, who worked as a liaison assistant
with a private firm in 1979-80, pleaded guilty and won his
freedom in the three-decade-old case, in which charges are yet
to be framed and in which four of the seven accused are
already dead.
Facing trial since 1983, Khurana earlier had gone in for
plea bargaining with the CBI to win his freedom.
"Considering the mutual satisfactory disposition arrived
at between CBI and accused Jawand Singh and in view of the
submissions made on the point of sentence, accused Jawand
Singh is hereby fined for Rs 5,000 for various offence under
the Official Secrets Act and the IPC, said Additional
Sessions Judge Kaveri Baweja, while letting off Khurana.
While working as a liaison assistant in a private firm in
1979-80, Khurana and six others, including the personal
assistant of a director in the Department of Chemical and
Fertilisers, them under the Union Ministry of Petroleum, were
involved in leakage of a government tender document for
setting up of an ammonia plant in India.
The CBI case dated back to 1979 when the Centre had given
the contract of setting up of ammonia plants at Thal-Vaishet
in Maharashtra and Hazira in Gujarat to US-based M/s C F Braun
and Company.
PTI
First Published: Monday, February 20, 2012, 18:41